Hey everyone :) Teen Titans was my all-time favorite show before I discovered Avatar: The Last Airbender :P I haven't written much fanfiction, but I originally intended just to focus on ATLA on this site (if you're also fan, you can go check out my other story xD).

However, I started rewatching Teen Titans over youtube lol, and I remembered just how wonderful of a show it was and how much it completed my childhood :3 I wrote this as a tribute to my favorite pairing - and they've ALWAYS been my favorite even BEFORE Trigon!

This started as a study break that stretched on for about 1 1/2 hours -.- but it was fun :) Hope you enjoy it!

Raven has always been the strongest out of our team, the most powerful one of all. Try finding someone else in the world who's able to teleport into alternate dimensions, heal, levitate, create force fields, project their soul, lift massive objects with their mind, read your mind, and stop time (and the list stretches further, mind you). Any luck? Didn't think so.

Raven's also the strongest out of our team…mentally. We all look like we're crying over spilled milk when compared to her, when things get tough for us. Really.

Take me, for example. I don't whine. I just get really angry at anyone and anything. Hard as it is for me to admit, my bad moods can cause drama for everyone in Titans Tower. I want to be alone, and I want to keep everyone out of my problems, but let's just say that I don't do a very good job at isolating myself without the entire team accusing me of going insane. Especially when it's related to Slade. Sometimes I think they're right, too.

Then there's Starfire. As innocent and cheerful as she is, sometimes you never know what might suddenly shatter her smile like glass. All you know is that when it does happen, she's going to hate herself and do something crazy unless you catch it in time and remind her just how much she means to the team. She's a strong girl, don't get me wrong…but she just needs those reminders every once in a while.

Now Cyborg, on the other hand, knows that he's a pretty awesome guy. Who wouldn't want massive strength and a supersonic cannon built into their arm? Not to mention he has bragging rights for being the greatest genius of technology in the city. Well, Gizmo might be able to rival him – but I don't count villains. Anyway, my half-robot friend is a fun-loving, plain-out awesome guy, like I said. But…he didn't always know it. In fact, he's only known it for the past three years or so. Ever since the accident that caused his transformation into Cyborg, he's had to deal with years of ridicule and shunning from everyone else. And there's times when that past comes back to torment him now. Beneath the all the boo-yahs, there's a person who still has doubt in his ability to fit in with the rest of society. Being with our freakish team has definitely helped him, of course, but the doubt's always there.

As for Beast Boy…Well, Beast Boy whines. When the issue is small, he whines until someone gives into what he wants (or quits if they ignore him long enough). When the issue is serious, he doesn't exactly whine, but his bad mood still manages to express itself in all sorts of ways. He's the type that can't keep it in. Out of all of us, I think Beast Boy is the fastest to give himself away when he's upset. It's not like we're any less emotional than him, but he's just the kind of guy who has to get rid of whatever's bothering him. Fast. Which is a good thing, really.

Finally…there's Raven. When you put together everything that has ever made everyone else in the entire team upset, it's nothing compared to what she's had to deal with. She grew up being told that one day she'd destroy the world, and she still fought villains alongside us. She was never allowed to express any of her emotions, and that forced her to be more distant than the rest of the team for years – yet, she didn't complain. Half of her existence comes from the incarnation of all evil, Trigon...and she proudly stands with the rest of us as a heroine. No doubts.

And that's exactly why it's impossible to tell when she's about to crack. Raven is the all-time expert at concealing her emotions. She'd had to do it her whole life in order to control her powers, for crying out loud. But even after Trigon was banished from the world and cleansed from her soul, she preferred to keep her negative emotions hidden from the rest of us. Not that she had many negative emotions; after the burden of her father was lifted, she couldn't be any happier. She'd said so herself. Her wonderful friends had been there for her all along, and we'd saved her – I saved her. Now that we suddenly had a life to look forward to, she was content spending it with her friends. Being a team forever – being friends forever – that was all she needed.

…Or so we thought. Like I said, she didn't harbor many negative emotions. Just one: loneliness. And not the type with no friends, because she's got the best friends she could ever ask for. It's the type that comes from a force that no one in this world or the next can ever control. Love...it can really be a killer. Loneliness is just another name for Love when it's unrequited. And even Raven wasn't strong enough to overcome it.

It was a slow process, to be sure. So slow that none of us even noticed it. But thinking back on it now, I should've known. Dammit, how could I not see how much we were all torturing her every day? To begin with, Raven could call none of us her best friend. All five of us are technically "best friends," mind you, but you can tell when there are two people who have that extra "BFF" connection that no one else shares. Starfire and I had admitted being BFFs in Tokyo, while Beast Boy and Cyborg had made it obvious from the very beginning. And Raven…was just Raven.

But the real killer is when people progress past that best friend level, and you're the only one left behind. Now that definitely can't apply to Beast Boy and Cyborg, thank God, but they, like Starfire and I, have still experienced something that Raven has never even come close to touching. For us, it's called Love. For her…it's called Loneliness.

Here's the worst part, though. I caused her loneliness. You don't really realize that the loneliness is there until there's a special someone that triggers it, after all. I had been oblivious to it all during our battle against Trigon and the Prophecy, because all I ever cared at during that moment was to keep her alive. To protect her, and to show her that life was still worth fighting for. Thinking back, though, it was understandable how the loneliness began. She'd come to me first when Slade showed up with Scath burning on his forehead. She'd let go of me last when she left us to fulfill her terrible destiny. It was my words that finally convinced her to regain hope – and Raven usually never listens to anyone once she's decided that something's impossible. It was me she embraced the moment it was all over.

We'd been so close during those dark hours. But what did I do as soon as everything went back to normal? I hung out with my best friend. In fact, I hung out with the rest of the team more so than her. We'd all assumed that she'd prefer to sit aside and read her books, like always. Or meditate. That's what she did, actually. And she'd watch us and smile to herself.

I'm a moron. It should've been obvious that Raven felt more than just hope while I was protecting her from Trigon. And when it was all over, I pretty much ignored the bond we shared and moved back to our old lifestyle – the lifestyle in which everyone has someone, and Raven has no one. Before Trigon, she'd been able to tough it out. She wasn't allowed to feel such emotions without wrecking the Tower, anyway. She'd been the strong, powerful girl she always was.

Then Trigon came and left. And so did I. It's amazing that Raven was still strong enough to hide her broken heart. For the first time in her life, she'd dared to hope that maybe, just maybe, there was someone out there who cared for her. Someone who could be more than a friend. I pretty much stamped out that hope without even realizing it. And she suffered.

There's nothing worse than allowing yourself to hope for love, then realizing that it was never there for you to begin with. Raven, the strongest person I know, couldn't even overcome the pain - and I'd let it happen. She watched me live out my fantasy with Starfire, smiling for us the entire time. She learned to accept that she would always be lonely. She forced herself to acknowledge the truth, that she was simply not special to anyone – not special to me. And it became too much for her.

If only she knew.

As my team lies defeated all around me, I can hear their tortured, despairing groans. I'm not in any better shape myself. I can hardly keep my eyes open, and the world around me is flashing in colors that I know don't exist. I want to talk, but the only sound that comes out is a feeble choke. My neck is pinned to the ground beneath a hard, crushing boot. My arms are bruised beyond any hope of resisting, and my lack of air is beginning to blur my vision.

I try my hardest to focus the last of my strength onto the person stepping down on me. Everything's turning dark, aside from a pair of glowing eyes, which are searing white as they stare down at me, emotionless.

And Slade's most prized apprentice finally utters her final farewell to me.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."

If only she knew.

Please excuse my writing if you didn't like it, because I was very stressed from studying for finals and just needed to write something on a whim :P

I'm not sure where I'm going with this story, but it might have potential if I try hard enough lol. I'm still absorbed in my Avatar: TLA story, so I'm trying to decide whether this should be a oneshot or a full-blown plot. Maybe in the morning I'll figure out how I feel. God, writing this makes me feel so nostalgic :')

What do you guys think? Continue? Or leave it? I'd love to know!